Donald Trump sets goal to create US military Space Force by 2020

US President Donald Trump's administration has set a goal of creating a sixth branch of the US military by 2020 known as the Space Force and says it will work to build bipartisan support in Congress for the plan.

Key points:

Space Force would take charge of assets like satellites enabling GPS

Mike Pence says "time has come" for Space Force

Critics say plan would just create unnecessary bureaucracy

Critics view the creation of a Space Force as an unnecessary and expensive bureaucratic endeavour and scoff at comparisons to the establishment of the Air Force in 1947.

The Space Force would be responsible for a range of crucial space-based US military capabilities, which include everything from satellites enabling the Global Positioning System (GPS) to sensors that help track missile launches.

US Vice-President Mike Pence, in a Pentagon address, described the Space Force as "an idea whose time has come".

"The next generation of Americans to confront the emerging threats in the boundless expanse of space will be wearing the uniform of the United States of America," he said, adding that Congress must now act to establish and fund the department.

Mr Trump, the champion of the plan, tweeted: "Space Force all the way!"

"President Trump wants a SPACE FORCE — a ground-breaking endeavour for the future of America and the final frontier," Times cites an email, signed by Mr Trump's 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale, as saying.

"As a way to celebrate President Trump's huge announcement, our campaign will be selling a new line of gear. But first we have to make a final decision on the design we will use to commemorate President Trump's new Space Force — and he wants YOU to have a say."

All the logos feature the words "Space Force", with one also saying "Mars awaits".

He described space as a domain that was once peaceful and uncontested but has now become crowded and adversarial.

"Now the time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of our armed forces, to prepare for the next battlefield where America's best and bravest will be called to deter and defeat a new generation of threats to our people, to our nation," he said.

Their remarks were timed to coincide with the release of a Pentagon report outlining the steps needed to create a Space Force, something it does not have the power to do on its own.

The Pentagon report included interim steps including creating a unified combatant command, known as the US Space Command, by the end of 2018, according to a copy reviewed by Reuters.

The department would also established a Space Development Agency to more quickly identify and develop new technologies and a Space Operations Force of leaders and fighters and a new support structure.

In the second phase, the Pentagon would combine all the components into the new sixth branch of service.

The current five branches of the US military include Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard.

In the meantime, the Space Command would be led by a four-star general, and Mr Pence said a new high-level civilian post — assistant defence secretary for space — would also be created.

US prepares for future war in space

One of the arguments in favour of devoting more resources to a Space Force or Space Command is that American rivals like Russia and China appear increasingly ready to strike US space-based capabilities in the event of a conflict.

"It is becoming a contested war fighting domain and we have to adapt to that reality," US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said as he introduced Mr Pence.

And there are growing worries about cyberattacks that could target satellite technology, potentially leaving troops in combat without electronic communications or navigation abilities.

Mr Mattis once voiced opposition to creating a new branch of the US military to focus on space-based military assets, saying in a 2017 letter that would likely "present a narrower and even parochial approach to space operations".

The United States is a member of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bars the stationing of weapons of mass destruction in space and allows for the use of the moon and other celestial bodies for peaceful purposes only.

Asked about the cost, Deputy Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters the Pentagon doesn't have a number yet but will when the legislative proposal is finished by the end of the year.

"I would assume it's billions," he said.

Former astronaut and retired US Navy captain Mark Kelly said a separate military branch devoted to space was redundant and wasteful, and while Mr Pence was right about the threats in outer space, the military was already handling them.

"There is a threat out there but it's being handled by the US Air Force today," Mr Kelly told MSNBC in an interview.

"[It] doesn't make sense to build a whole other level of bureaucracy in an incredibly bureaucratic DoD (Department of Defence)."